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Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

marko.fyi

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Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#171

Post by microcolonel »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #158

People, who choose Chrome (not even Chromium) over Firefox for a fraction of a second faster load speed of some pages (, which is often even "fake" as Google artificially slows down some pages for Firefox users or engineers them in Chrome optimization specific ways,) disregarding any privacy concerns, are simply not the target group of Firefox developers, because they do not care about privacy enhancing features. To…

> ...for a fraction of a second faster load speed of some pages (, which is often even "fake" as Google artificially slows down some pages for Firefox users or engineers them in Chrome optimization specific ways,) disregarding any privacy concerns...

That is false and defamatory. Chromium is noticeably faster than Firefox on a large swath of popular websites and web applications, the majority of which Google does not control; particularly on resource-constrained devices, and on Linux.

Memory usage comparisons on different machines with different pages and different other applications running are beyond meaningless. Chromium will use less memory if you don't have much, and it will use more if you have memory to spare; I'm sure Firefox will do some similar things.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#172

Post by hollerith »

hu3 wrote: post #154
neiman wrote: post #123

A question for HN readers that use Chrome: why did you choose that? The readers here seems like the ideal crowd of Firefox users.

Better energy efficiency Superior video playback Allows 2 simultaneous dictionaries Doesn't show ads when I open a new tab Pinch to zoom They haven't forgotten to renew certificates so far Smooth Gmail Never crashed on my machine vs Firefox used to crash once a day Superior dev tools Doesn't cause high cpu usage in some sites like Twitch ----- I'll revisit my options when/if Chrome breaks uBlock Origin on stable

I switched from Firefox to Chrome right after I discovered that malware on Firefox had changed so many about:config settings that I couldn't untangle my own changes to about:config from the changed made by the malware.

That and my having seen repeated assertion by HN user tptacek that Chrome's security team is the second best in the industry (behind only the iOS security team).

Well, that and the lack of any signs that Mozilla management was prioritizing improving Firefox's resistance to malware. (Mozilla's interest in using Rust I saw as a positive sign, but not particularly directly relevant to the question.) At the time, one of Mozilla's priorities was introducing a new mobile OS.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#173

Post by microcolonel »

hollerith wrote: post #143

OK, Firefox experts: which desktop OS does Firefox run best on? And which desktop OS has the largest usage share among the developers of Firefox? (I want to know because I am undecided on which OS I will be using in the future. By "run best" I mean the fewest bugs and the fewest instances of behavior that would surprise an ordinary user.)

Windows, by a long shot.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#174

Post by jeena »

markosaric wrote: post #145
photonios wrote: post #104

This post actually made me switch to Firefox. The set up process was very smooth. Importing all my settings from Chrome just worked. I feel safer already. Is it just me or does the scrolling feel a bit different in Firefox? I am running Firefox on a Macbook from 2019 using the touch pad. Thanks OP!

Very happy to see your message, thank you! When I saw Firefox so low on the browser market share list (4% only), my intention was to write something that may get a person or two to give it a chance. It deserves it as it brings so much value. Thank you again.

I was also kind of shocked about how low that number is because most of my family and friends use Firefox, but most probably I live in a self inflicted bubble because I tell everyone to use Firefox instead when I see that they don't.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#177

Post by floatingatoll »

jaredcwhite wrote: post #55

If you're on a Mac with wide color gamut, here's a trick to improve Firefox's rendering so colors aren't oversaturated: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1250461#c28

For those testing this, open Safari and Firefox to HN and compare the shade of orange in the header. In Safari it’ll be the correct dull sRGB orange as shown to PC users decades ago when HN picked that color. In Firefox it may be blindingly saturated and bright.

If it is, and you prefer Firefox to apply ICC color correction to match Safari, set gfx.color_management.mode to 1 in about:config and restart.

There is an upcoming color standard change that will allow web developers to specify wide gamut CSS colors. Right now, they cannot. The current draft of that spec declares that all #aabbcc web colors are not wide color by default, unless specified by the designer. If that is kept in the final release, Firefox will eventually comply and this option will no longer be required.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#178

Post by mbrumlow »

ubercow13 wrote: post #162
dguo wrote: post #82

The post briefly mentions multi-account containers[1]. I have loved using them and regard them as a killer feature for Firefox. Very few websites support account switching. Google is probably the best example, and even then, I don't really want to log in to both my personal and work Gmail within the same session. But containers effectively and cleanly enable multiple sessions for all websites. Like tabs so many years…

Containers still have quite a bad UX though. It’s OK to open a tab in the desired container and load Facebook, but whenever you leave Facebook via a link, it will stay in the same container. If you eventually end up on a website you want to be logged in to, you’ll have to manually switch to the right container again. It seems like containers are a powerful concept with multiple different uses, but the UX for each of…

Is that not the point though? You don't want to expose to Facebook that you have a account on some 3rd party site and expose to some 3red party site you have a Facebook accoun.

You describe exactly what I would want and expect.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#179

Post by po1nter »

gtyras2mrs wrote: post #176

Does anyone know of a working Picture-in-Picture plugin for Firefox? Safari and Chrome both have working PiP - which still keeps me switching back to them when I want to play something in the background.

I'm on the Firefox Developer Edition and it supports this natively. You can see how it works here https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/07/testing-picture-in-picture...

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#180

Post by Causality1 »

neogodless wrote: post #26
Causality1 wrote: post #6

Distraction-free? Have they stopped filling the new tab page with revenue-generators like Pocket?

It's that, in your opinion, worse than what Google does, collecting and monetizing information about you?

Frankly, yes. I might find Google's actions offensive in principle, but since I block ads they have absolutely zero impact on my life. Things like Pocket are actual hassles, albeit small ones.
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